Image is for illustrative purposes only.
Puff pastry is a laminated dough: a simple dough of bread flour, water, salt and a splash of vinegar is wrapped around a slab of butter, then rolled and folded again and again until hundreds of paper-thin layers of dough and butter sit on top of one another. In the oven the water in the butter turns to steam and forces those layers apart, so the pastry rises into crisp, flaky, buttery sheets with no raising agent at all.
The vinegar is there to relax the gluten so the dough rolls out without fighting back, and bread flour gives it the strength to hold all that butter through the turns. Rolled thin and baked between trays it makes flat, crisp sheets for layering with cream, fruit or florentine mix; left to rise freely it becomes vol-au-vents, palmiers, baton pastries and turnovers. It is a patient dough rather than a difficult one — keep everything cool, rest it between turns, and it will do the work for you.
Ingredients
The weights in the recipe table below will yield the following 'weight per unit' and 'number of units'. If you would like to change the recipe to cater to a different 'weight per unit' and/or 'number of units',
you can use the Recipe Calculator Tool below the ingredients table.
Note: The Recipe Calculator Tool is available to subscribers.
Weight Per Unit: 976
Number of Units: 2
Unit Size: block of about 975 g, each rolling out to a 35 x 25 cm sheet
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WEIGHT
(grams)
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ALTERNATIVE METRIC
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INGREDIENT
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IMAGE
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CONDITION
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A
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880 |
31 ounces
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Bread Flour
Bread flour is a strong wheat flour with a higher protein content than plain or cake flour. In a heavy, fruit-laden batter like this one it gives the crumb enough structure to hold the banana and pineapple without sinking.
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sifted |
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B
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440 |
1.9 cups
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Water
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cold |
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C
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18 |
1 tablespoons
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Vinegar
Vinegar is a liquid consisting mainly of acetic acid (CH3COOH) and water. The acetic acid is produced by the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria.[1] Vinegar is now mainly used as a cooking ingredient. Historically, as the most easily available mild acid, it had a great variety of industrial, medical and domestic uses, some of which (such as its use as a general household cleanser) are still promoted today.
The term "distilled vinegar" is something of a misnomer, because it is not produced by distillation but by fermentation of distilled alcohol. The fermentate is diluted to produce a colorless solution of 5% to 8% acetic acid in water, with a pH of about 2.4. This is variously known as distilled spirit, "virgin" vinegar, or white vinegar, and is used in cooking, baking, meat preservation, and pickling, as well as for medicinal, laboratory, and cleaning purposes.
white
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D
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8.5 |
0.3 ounce
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Salt
Common salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent; the open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%. Salt is essential for animal life, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous of food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation.
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E
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605 |
21.3 ounces
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Butter
Butter is a solid dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk, to separate the butterfat from the buttermilk. It is generally used as a spread on plain or toasted bread products and a condiment on cooked vegetables, as well as in cooking, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying. Butter consists of butterfat, milk proteins and water.
unsalted
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cold but pliable |
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1951
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Recipe Calculator Tool
Using this tool, you can alter this recipe for your own requirements. Use the two fields below to generate new weights for the ingredients above.
STEP 1. Enter your Custom Weight Per Unit
The 'Custom Weight Per Unit' is already loaded with the weight per unit for this recipe but can be changed if required. If all you wish to do is change the number of units (or servings), just leave the current weight per unit.
STEP 2. Enter your Custom Number of Units
This is the number of units (or servings) you want this recipe to yield.
STEP 3. Click Calculate
The new weights for your adjusted recipe will be displayed in the table above.
Method
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STEP
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ACTION
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DETAIL
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CONDITION
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1 |
Prepare |
Take about a tenth of E (butter) from the weighed amount and leave it soft; keep the rest cold for the lamination. |
Soft butter for the dough, firm butter for the block |
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2 |
Mix |
Place A and D (bread flour and salt) in a mixing bowl, rub in the small amount of soft butter, then add B and C (water and white vinegar) and mix to a dough. |
Smooth but not over-worked, soft and slightly tacky |
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3 |
Rest |
Shape the dough into a square, cut a cross in the top, wrap it and rest in the fridge. |
At least 30 minutes, until firm and relaxed |
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4 |
Shape |
Place the remaining cold E (butter) between two sheets of baking paper and beat and roll it into a flat square about half the size of the rolled dough. |
Pliable but still cool — it should bend without cracking or smearing |
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5 |
Encase |
Roll the rested dough out from the cross into a cross shape with a thicker centre, sit the butter square in the middle and fold the four flaps over to seal it in completely. |
Butter fully enclosed, no gaps or trapped air |
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6 |
Roll |
Roll the block out to a long rectangle about 1 cm thick, always rolling in one direction, then fold both ends into the centre and close like a book (a double turn). |
Even thickness, butter still in one unbroken layer |
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7 |
Rest |
Wrap and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes, then repeat the rolling and double turn twice more, resting 30 minutes between each. |
Three double turns in total; dough stays cool and rolls without resistance |
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8 |
Rest |
Rest the finished dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour before using, or overnight. |
Firm and relaxed, will not shrink back when rolled |
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9 |
Roll |
Divide the dough into two blocks and roll each out to fit a 35 x 25 cm tray, 2 to 3 mm thick. Dock all over with a fork and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes before baking. |
Even sheet, well docked so it bakes flat |
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10 |
Bake |
Bake at 200°C (390°F) for 15 to 20 minutes. For flat, even sheets, lay a sheet of baking paper over the pastry and rest a second flat tray on top for the first two thirds of the baking, then remove it to colour the surface. |
Deep golden brown and crisp all the way through, no pale doughy layers |
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11 |
Cool |
Slide onto a rack and cool completely before cutting or filling. |
Crisp and dry; cut with a serrated knife |
Important Notes
This half batch makes about 1,950 g of dough — two blocks of roughly 975 g, each rolling out to a sheet for a 35 x 25 cm tray. In the bakery one full batch of dough is cut into four pieces and rolled out for large sheets used under florentine mix, so trim off-cuts are worth saving for palmiers or cheese sticks. Keep everything cool while you work: if the butter starts to soften or push through the dough, stop and return it to the fridge before carrying on. The dough can be wrapped well and kept in the fridge for up to 3 days, or frozen in blocks or rolled-out sheets for up to 3 months — defrost overnight in the fridge before rolling. Baked sheets keep crisp for a day or two in an airtight container and can be refreshed for a few minutes in a hot oven.
Tools & Arrangements
Mixing bowl or mixer with dough hook, rolling pin, baking paper, ruler, pastry brush, fork for docking, flat baking trays, plastic wrap, cooling rack, serrated knife
